Plagued

by Barnett, Nicola

  “Isn’t that the way we’re going?” Sarah asked, nervously.

  Mark laughed a little. “Yep,” he said, “unless you want to change your mind?”

  Sarah thought about it for a second and then smiled determinedly, “No way.”

  “Dammit,” Mark snorted. “Thought I’d try.”

  ~

  They left after searching Adrianne’s house for supplies, turning up nothing. Adrianne really had been starving.

  The woods behind the bungalows were not that dense so close to the city. The tall grass and small woodland that stood in front of them was carved in two by a small cobble path that delved deep into the trees. A small wooden sign on the left of the path read, “Witches Woods.”

  “Don’t worry,” Mark said, eyeing the sign. “There are no witches in here…I don’t think.”

  Sarah smiled and shook her head at him. “Good, we don’t need The Winding Witch on our backs as well as everything else.”

  They followed the path slowly, crunching over small stones and pebbles as quietly as they could, walking as close to each other as possible. To them, it felt like each step further into the woods was a gamble as the trees grew denser and light diminished.

  Neither of them knew what would come for them ahead and the further they walked, the more the path disappeared under the grass. Small rays of light flickered through the trees like spotlights, highlighting the small insects floating merrily in their beams. Birds tweeted as they rustled through the trees — under normal circumstances, it would be a beautifully peaceful sight.

  They decided that when night fell, using the flashlight would be a bad idea since they didn’t want to attract company, so if it got dark before they came out the other end, they’d have to find shelter somewhere. But they both agreed that their best option was to be out of there before daybreak.

  Soon, the view of the houses behind them disappeared — the trees swallowed them up and replaced them with more and more trees. Sarah began to tremble, the heat from the sunshine was lost in the shade and a damp chill grew in the air. She wasn’t at all sure if that’s why she was shaking.

  A scream reverberated through the woods, chilling the two listeners. Somewhere in front, they heard the sound of breaking branches and rustling leaves. Sarah and Mark dropped to the floor at the same time, holding each other’s hand tightly, listening to the sounds of the forest.

  It had been eerily quiet since they left Albert’s basement and that only enhanced the feeling between them that something horrible lay ahead, waiting for them to stumble upon it.

  Because of recent disuse, the path this far in was barely noticeable. Even before the outbreak, people rarely used the woods unless it was the middle of summer when the light shining through the trees was at its strongest. There were no signs that anyone at all had passed through here recently and that played on Sarah’s mind. She thought about Albert, he had said it was too dangerous. Have we made a mistake?

  A pain shot up her ankle like lightning and she fell to the ground, swearing under her breath. She looked behind her and saw a rock lying where she had just stepped. She yelped in pain as she tried to stand and fell back down. Mark hurried to help her to her feet.

  “Are you okay?” he asked, holding her arm and grabbing her around the waist.

  “Yeah,” she winced. “I think it’s just a sprain. I tripped over a bloody rock!”

  “You mean that pebble?” Mark said, smirking. He lifted her off the ground enough to let her hop forward on one leg. “Take some of the weight off it for a while.”

  “Thanks,” she said smiling. “It’s my own fault, I was miles away.”

  They carried on walking, slowly and steadily.

  “What were you thinking about?” he whispered, as he carefully checked their surroundings.

  “Everything — Albert, my family... Jack,” Sarah said, hesitating on the last word.

  Mark fell silent as they walked, unsure of how to respond. Something burned in his chest but he reassured her by squeezing her arm and smiling. They fell silent again, no one wanting to talk about the scream they had heard and what it meant. They instead concentrated on the ever-darkening woods around them, inwardly conscious of their newest problem— the path below their feet had vanished.

  Chapter 6

  When Mark had chosen the route to take back in the basement, he’d assumed he would be able to lead them through the woods by memory (having spent a lot of time in them as a child) but — as he was becoming increasingly aware — that had been a long time ago and the world had seemed a different place through the eyes of a child.

  They followed a faint line of lowest grass that looked like overgrown trail, hoping that they were going the right direction. The map they had brought in their backpacks told them nothing since they didn’t know where north or south was in the middle of the woods. Disturbingly, no wildlife stirred in the woods now, the faint tweeting of the birds had died down an hour before. On the upside though, there was no more screaming.

  Sarah’s ankle began to feel better and she could walk with only a slight pain in her foot. The sunlight was disappearing quickly as the forest grew denser. Sarah didn’t think she had ever seen it so dark in the afternoon. Was it afternoon? Had they really been walking that long? She couldn’t be sure, though they weren’t moving very quickly. She chastised herself for falling asleep in the bungalow. It lost them precious time.

  The wind blew gently through the trees, blowing the branches and leaves. They danced in the breeze making shadows everywhere — to Sarah, they looked like arms reaching out for her to drag her into the bushes. Get a hold of yourself!

  A black shape ran through the trees in front of them, so quickly they barely registered it. Sarah hoped it was a figment of her imagination until Mark whispered for her to stop walking. He pointed ahead at a long shape in the distance. Panic flowed through her body, prickling her skin.

  They dropped to the ground. It was too dark to tell what it was but it wasn’t small enough to be a rabbit or fox. Mark hoped in vain that it was a deer, though he had never seen a deer in Witches Woods in his whole life. It was too close to the city.

  The shape shrank in size as it moved, so much so that it disappeared entirely. Sarah let out a sigh of relief and they began to relax a little, neither of them realising it had gone in the same direction as they were.

  Getting back on their feet — Mark unwilling to let Sarah walk unaided — they walked sheepishly forward, concentrating on the sounds of the forest. Every now and again Sarah felt Mark’s gaze at the side of her face and every time he did, she blushed, so she had been avoiding his gaze ever since.

  She felt like an awkward young girl again, which was an unwelcome feeling. It reminded her of a horror movie; the ones in which the heroes are close to being murdered yet still find the time to fall in love with each other, which to Sarah was ridiculous. She hoped he hadn’t noticed her scarlet face. Her stomach started to rumble loudly and she rubbed it. She had been hungry ever since they got into the woods. About to be ripped apart by crazy people and I’m giggling like a school girl and thinking of my belly!

  Mark looked around them and smiled, relief filling his face. He had thought they were lost, something he didn’t want to tell Sarah, but he was starting to recognize his surroundings. He had played here as a child! There were rocks in the distance, very distinct ones — one was large with a flat top and it was one of his favourite climbing spots. There were two smaller, completely round ones on top of it. He and his friends had taken turns jumping off it onto a pile of leaves many times in his youth. His heart leapt in his chest as he remembered what was so special about them.

  “I know this place!” he whispered to Sarah, dragging her towards them hastily.

  “Where are we going?”

  “I’m going to show you something pretty awesome, if it’s still here!”

  Sarah looked around her anxiously until the rocks were right in front of them. Mark stopped running and they leaned
forward, catching their breath.

  The biggest rock with the flat top was nearly Sarah’s height and it stood near an old oak tree with an enormous trunk that looked at least five foot in width. There were remnants of writing all over the rock that had been engraved into it over the years. Mark pointed to one, ‘Mark Si n Chaz were here’, and he followed the carved words with his finger and smiled.

  “Is this what you wanted to show me?” Sarah whispered, reading the other etchings.

  “No, not this,” he said and pointed directly above them into the trees. He had a smug smile.

  Sarah was astonished at the sight — way above them, high up in the branches of the oak tree was a large tree house. It was extremely well built, not a gap in sight and wooden planks were nailed into the trunk as a makeshift ladder. The branches were thick and opened out like a man with outstretched arms, intertwining with the tree next to it. The base of the tree held the tree house in place and large, rusty nails held them together. “Wow,” she said, mouth open.

  “Looks a little different than I remember it,” Mark said, circling the tree. “Someone must have added to it recently.”

  Something let out a scream ahead and they dropped down behind the rocks. Then another scream...and another, until the air filled with screeching. These were not painful screams — as the young woman being dragged across the street had done — but screams of pure rage. They differed in pitch but they had one thing in common — they were all very angry.

  Mark jumped to his feet and signalled up the tree, without protest Sarah climbed clumsily up the wooden steps and Mark pushed her bum up gently. She scrambled up quickly, willing the wooden planks to stay where they were and not break beneath her feet. She grabbed the tree branches and lifted herself through the small, square hole in the base of the tree house. Then it was Mark’s turn, he climbed up effortlessly and his head appeared in the hole. His shoulders were broad and Sarah didn’t think he make it through. After a struggle, he did and they sat in the tree house panting for breath, hidden from below.

  The tree house was large on the inside — more than enough room for both of them to sit down comfortably. A felt roof had been stapled on top of the wooden planks, making it mostly rain proof and the wood had held well with age, despite its mossy cover. A picture of the Biker Mice from Mars hung limply on the wall, all the colours faded to a weak yellow. A few empty cans of Cola lay in the corner with an empty Mayfair cigarette packet. Someone had really enjoyed this place.

  Mark and Sarah sat rigid, listening to the screams get closer and closer, accompanied by footsteps stomping through the undergrowth.

  “Farbah!” a woman shouted in the distance and a man screamed something back in response.

  They screamed at each other for a minute or so, rambling to each other in what sounded like nonsense and then they ran off again, laughing and screaming. The noises quietened down until there was no sound at all.

  Sarah let out her breath and her shoulders relaxed. “Phew. That was close.”

  “Yeah, thank God for kids, aye?” Mark said with a laugh.

  Sarah eyed the cigarette packet with an accusing look on her face. “How old did you say you were when you played here?” she said, eyebrow raised.

  “They’re not mine, I swear!” he said, crossing his heart with his hands. “I didn’t start that until I was fourteen.”

  They both laughed breathlessly. Sarah held her stomach and it growled in response.

  “You’re hungry,” Mark said, taking some of the dried crackers out of his backpack. “This might be the last chance we get to eat.”

  Sarah smiled. “You know, if anyone had told me last year that I would be sitting in a tree house in the middle of the woods, with a man who I barely know, eating dried crackers, I would have told them they were crazy.” She took a swig of water from her bottle.

  “Yeah, if you’d told me that I was going to end up dragging a half-conscious woman through Winding when she was infected with what looks like the plague, I would have said the same thing,” he grinned.

  “Dragging?!”

  “Well, all I’m gonna say is that you’re certainly not six stone in weight, my dear.”

  Sarah elbowed him in the ribs and he grabbed her arm, laughing. His hand slid down to her hand and held it there, stopping her from hitting him again. Their laughs fell silent as they stared at each other, still hand-in-hand. Sarah blushed and Mark let go of her, turning away from her to hide his scarlet cheeks.

  They both crunched quietly at their crackers, watching the woods around them and using the valuable time to rest their weary legs. They caught sight of infected running madly through the undergrowth from time-to-time but —as they were high in the treetops and the infected showed no sign of knowing they were there — they weren’t too worried.

  “How are we going to get by them?” Sarah finally whispered, breaking the long silence.

  Mark shrugged, as though he’d been wondering the same. “Well, it looks like it’s getting darker out there. Hopefully their eyesight is as bad in the night as ours. We’ll have to wait here until the sun goes down and—” he sighed, “sneak by them.”

  Sarah looked at him with an anxious face. “How far until we’re out? We’ve been walking for hours; we’ve got to be nearing the edge.”

  As a child Mark had wandered here often with his friends, spending hours looking for new forts and places to play. Even after all that time, he had never explored the edge of the forest, it was too far for them to walk and his father had always warned him about the sudden, steep drops around the eastern edges that overlooked the farms. He’d never been a particularly brave child.

  He got out the map and laid it on his lap, studying it intently. It wasn’t much help as they had no idea which direction they were facing. They had started walking north from Winding and they were supposed to go straight east to get to the farmland which led to Solitude, but — in the panicked state they were in — they’d lost all sense of direction.

  “It can’t be that far surely,” he said, trying to sound confident.

  “Liar,” she said and nudged him. He gave her a weak smile.

  “I’m sorry. I promise to a more engaging liar in the future,” he said, putting the food and water back in his pack. “We’d better go before they cotton on. If they can climb, we’re pretty much fucked.”

  They climbed back down the tree trunk, alert to any sound coming from around them. The tension between them was high and they both tried to ignore the feeling that they were walking into a hornet’s nest. They stepped on the ground with a thump — one after the other — and listened to the distant bellows coming from all directions.

  The light was really dimming as the sun lowered from its spot high in the sky and the shadows had completely changed, making the forest look alien and unfamiliar. They studied the ground, looking for a parting in the grass that their footsteps should have made but they seemed to be everywhere. Lines ran through the grass in all directions, creating a large web around them that Mark swore weren’t there earlier. His stomach tensed.

  Something flesh-coloured whizzed by somewhere in front of them, disappearing into the trees. Mark pulled Sarah down into the grass. Another figure — this one was female and had long, knotted blonde hair — ran past and yelled something, a moment later the first figure reappeared and began mumbling to the second one. Sarah and Mark instinctively ducked their heads further, both breathing heavily, the fear of being seen almost tangible.

  The figures were all naked — the blonde-haired woman, a fat bald man, and a man with black hair were the only ones they could see, but they could hear the delirious ramblings of others. They scuffled with each other, growling and snarling at each other with bared teeth.

  “Cooee!” the blonde shouted to the fat man, wiggling her naked breasts at him.

  The fat man, seemingly unimpressed by her body, raised his arm high over his shoulder and hit the woman in the face with a curled fist. It connected with a hefty blo
w that knocked the woman onto the floor with a ‘thud’. The woman howled in pain and she looked at him with her bottom lip extended. The fat man threw his head back and laughed heartily, causing the large folds of skin on his stomach to wobble uncontrollably.

  The woman scowled and turned away from him, sticking her nose into the air petulantly. She caught sight of the dark-haired man in the corner of her eye — who had been watching the show and clapping along merrily — and she ran for him with impressive speed. By the time the poor man realised what was happening, she had already sank her teeth into his head and pulled off what seemed to be his ear, shaking it like a dog with a toy. Blood dribbled down her chin as she chewed on it, jumping up and down triumphantly.